Secrets to Moving On: Chapter 1

What's the main difference between people who achieve and people who are just average?

What makes achievers excel on things? Why do some people seems to get things their way and others tried hard and still does not make it? It is so amazing that despite all the difficulties and hardships in life they still land on the top 5. They were able to find ways to achieve their goals. They were able to graduate from another course while raising two kids. Isn't it great? Isn't it the reason also why we do things daily? We do this and that because we wanted to achieve something?


Certainly, all people think of themselves as above average. Achievers leave "average" behind them- so far that they couldn't notice anymore.


What could be the reasons why they are achieving so much? Is it because of family background, of wealth, of opportunity, of high morals in life, or they are lucky and that they never experience hardships in life?


None of these things are the factors of why they are called "Achievers".


The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond failure.

- Kyle Rote Jr.

Spro

I can't believe he really meant what he said. Now he has his own coffee shop. Spro Coffee Shop...wow....nice name. I like the red color Dr. Jim. I've learned to blog from this guy. He talks anything that was on his mind. He talks like a encyclopedia, and knows everything like wikipedia. I like his tag line, Brain on Ink, that's why his blog is BOINK! He's smart, and most of the times you'll never know if he's serious or not.

My God! Nice color.

Visit them at Gen. Luna St. or visit Dr. Jim at MTC Academy.

REPOST from my other blog

As a child, Honey Baula, wanted to be a doctor. At 18 and in her pre-medicine year, everything went from bright to bleak in just one stroke. She lost her sight.

For more than 10 years she stayed at home and lived an uncomplicated life, putting dreams of a career at the back of his head. Forgetting everything she ever think of. But things changed, and now she is looking forward to being in the medical field that she so desired, as a medical transcriptionist.

In September 2006, a newspaper report on computer training for visually impaired persons in Davao City caught the attention of her mother. She submitted herself for an assessment for the computer training. She even explained that when she was in the bus, she can feel freedom.

She heard on T.V. of a medical transcriptionist who is blind since birth and was able to work like a normal MT. One day, while walking inside Gaisano Mall of Davao, Flong (Honey's sighted guide) MTC Academy who participated on a Jobs Fair. Ever since, Honey was in and out of MTC Academy inquiring about recent updates and if she can be enrolled.

Finally, February 5, 2007, she was an official student of MTC Academy. Everything and everyone was inspired with Honey's determination and persistence.

Honey gave series of talks to media, group of teachers who are involved in guiding multiple handicapped students from different schools.

Here's what Honey Baula can say:




(from left to right: Mom Estrella, Honey Baula, Wit Holganza, Blogie Robillo)

A CHANCE TO BELONG

We may not make the right choices, but fate can sometimes be ironic

I once lived in a world full of sunshine where colors were a sight to behold. I took it all for granted; I never basked in the glory of wonders that surrounded me. When I was still young, I had high hopes and life was still worth living. Trials come and go, and when it came into my life, my bright future dimmed, the brightness that showered upon my world turned into complete darkness. I felt alone, helpless, and vulnerable. I was afraid, confused, and depressed. Worry, doubt, fear and despair – all these things were on my shoulders and turned my spirit to dust. Then, like a virus, all that I felt turned into anger, anger that was eating me up inside. But we all have choices to make; sometimes trivial, or choices that can turn our life around, be it for better or worse. Even as the anger kept growing, I chose to make my life better. I could have stayed home, be alone, and be dependent on my parents for all my needs, or I can simply go out and see the world at my perspective.

I may have lost one thing, but I gained many. I made more friends than before, I learned how to play the keyboard, and was once the church organist at our local congregation. I also learned how to play the guitar. I learned how to bake cakes and pastries and was able to make a small business out of it. I fought against darkness, darkness ruled over me for a time, but it’s not going to get me the second time around. But no matter how I tried to gain back the world, something is lacking. How many like me are still out there, what are they doing right now, are they enjoying the same opportunities I’m having right now, do they also want to make something out of their lives, are they making the same choices as I am, to just sit around and wait for the world to end or go out and seize the day. (SPED to RBI to MTC)

At first, it was all of personal reason and interest, but as time passes by, a vision began to mold, a vision to reach out for the others like me and be men for others, a vision to be of service to the visually impaired. Today, I have found a niche in the society, a chance to belong in the society, in the community. I may be visually impaired but I am normal. I am human. I am a person.There are lepers. There are differently disabled persons. There are mentally challenged people. But they are all human. We are blind, but we are also human. We are persons of feelings and emotions. We feel pain, anger, and we get hurt too. We are people, and we also belong in the society, but we doubt if society embraces our presence. We may not be able to see or hear it, but we can feel the cold stares of strangers. In the world of technology and advances in other fields of endeavor, discrimination is very much felt. We do not want that. You do not want that either. But nobody is taking actions. We only act when it happens to us, to our love ones, to those near us. Why don’t we all act now. Let’s act now.

By placing Special Education program in your school, you are not only educating the visually impaired, but you are also embracing them as one of us. Through this valuable program, you are breaking the chains of discrimination that unconsciously ails our society. You are giving each and everyone a chance to belong, a chance to let them do the things they couldn’t do before, a chance to meet challenges by themselves, and the greatest chance to live life to the fullest. You are also giving them a chance to say “I did this, I did that, and I did this all by myself”. Thanks to the loving support of my family and the Special Education program (SPED), I was able to meet all these opportunities. Because of this program, they turn my disability into an ability. The success of this program will not and cannot be measured by its monetary value and cost, but by how many visually impaired friends and persons we have embraced in our family and in our society. You are giving them a chance to live life as they want it, a chance to coexist in the society, and a chance to love and to be loved. Give them this chance. Abled or differently abled, I know that there is in every persons’ heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement of stars and star-like things, the challenges of events, the childlike appetite for what is next, and the joy of the game of living.

I want to give a big shout out, with much love and respect to RBI, MTC Academy.

This is the kind of life God wants me to have. This is what he wants me to be, and this is where he wants me to be. And I thank him for that. We are all as young as our faith, as old as our doubt. As young as our self-confidence, as old as our fear. As young as our hope, and as old as our despair. As I continue to move forward, and as you start your journey by giving the visually impaired a chance to belong, let us all walk with God by faith and not by sight.

Again, I am Honey Baula, with pride and without shame, I can tell everybody that I am visually impaired. We could make it, if we try.

Hope in Darkness

Dear Readers,

Good day!

I'm Hunee Royo, employed and doing the position as a Marketing Assistant of MTC Academy Davao. From the start I know I can do my job, and I thought it will be easy. I've strive as much as I could to turn enrollment numbers up but it wasn't the way I wanted it to be.

I've met Honey Baula when I was manning our booth at a Job Fair at Gaisano Mall of Davao. Honey Baula is a visually impaired person. She had accident that's why she got blind. At first, I didn't thought she was blind because I was taught blind people could not blink their eyes. She asked me if she can be a medical transcriptionist despite the fact that she's blind. I could not say any comment. I don't want to hurt her feeling so I pretend and say OK.

Months has passed, and Honey continuously visit our office and ask for updates. Sooner she was put into a test if our software will work for her. She would be in the office early and waited for her time to get into the office.

I thought 2007 was an unhappy year because I almost quited on my job and would want to look for another one. A few days after she enrolled.

From day 1, I got no disability, but I keep mumbling about something that I can do, and that I can do that everyday. Here's Honey Baula, she's doing all she can do to live normal.

I'm trying to address the message to all that can see, if Honey was able to see hope in medical transcription why not others. Is it because we need to be blind to be able to realize that we are lucky?

This proves that in medical transcription, the playing field is even.

Nobody said It was Easy

Headaches, nausea, mood flings and a lot more. I hate this astigmatism thing. I don't know what's so good about it but it changes my whole aura to something weird and absolutely not me kinda thing.

I wish I can be better in the few days. I miss blogging already.

Lechon Hamonada

It was a student's birthday last July 1 and she brought food back to Davao from Mati. She was thinking of bringing the whole Lechon but then the skin will not be that crunchy when you have to wait 2 more days before going back to the city. She turned it into Lechon Hamonada.

I wanted to eat an early lunch and maybe buy one cup of rice and pair it with two salted egg. That I pictured to be perfect lunch on a hot Saturday. That was yummy! I have to pass that dream when this student came in with 3 Tupperwares full of some stuff and asking me at my table, "Did everyone eat lunch?". I answered her back, "No mam." "Ok! Great. I have food."

That time on that was the best lunch ever. I know I had some but it was so heavy. Thank God it was for free.

Oh! Gosh. I didn't take pictures. Damn gurl!

Getting Things Done

In any workplace, you would see office workers do multitasking. For someone who is new to this word, multitasking is getting a lot of things done in an office. Let say, I'm actually just a marketing assistant but I can also do some things for the accounting department which is deliver checks to suppliers and stuff. I can also some thing for the IT department, I can lay-out and do design with Corel Draw and Adobe Photoshop. Even if I don't know anything about lay-out and design I might push myself to learn it because I might need it in the future.

With the things that I got in my bag, I can use all these to start with getting things done.

1. Organizer

From the word it self, it'll help you organize things. What's inside it are note pads, address book, daily planner, weekly planner, and a lot more. I can have all the unimportant to my life but important for my work addresses and phone numbers written in the organizer. I can focus on what to do weekly, so that I can plan my daily itinerary.

2. Mobile Phones

This phone has a reminder. If I forget to bring my organizer this thing will do the alarm and tell me if I'm going to meet someone else today.

I've taken the title of my post to David Allen's new book on multitasking.

Here are a couple of steps David Allen pointed out:

Clear the Decks

GOAL: Record all your commitments to free up mental energy and start accomplishing things.

GTD is a totalizing system, so don't expect to just ease yourself in. The first big push is key, and it requires a major, two-day collection process, in which you're supposed to gather up every single thing that requires action on your part: unopened mail, emails, voicemails, countertop clutter, reading materials, scary catch-all cabinets you can barely open. For larger items that don't fit into a desktop inbox-a broken fridge, a leaky faucet-just make an individual note and add it to the pile. Allen suggests that you devote a separate sheet of paper to each idea or project. A discrete, physical object helps make an idea more concrete, and it lets you track each item individually, increasing its chances of getting done.

When all your physical rubble is more or less in one place, it's time for a "mind-sweep": the processing of writing down everything in every aspect of your life that you want to get done-now, next year, or sometime before you die.

The Nitty Gritty

Trigger List

Chapter 5 of Getting Things Done has a helpful trigger list to jog your memory about commitments you've made or want to make. There are more than 200 items on the list. Here are ten of them:

Professional:

• Policies/Procedures
• Commitments/Promises to Others
• Installation of New Systems/Equipment
• Forecasts/Projections
• Training/Seminars

Personal:

• Vacation Plans
• Books/Records/CDs
• Vehicle Repair/Maintenance
• RSVPs
• Civic Issues/Community

Empty Your Inbox

Goal: Break tasks down into actionable steps.

Once you've compiled your inventory of unfinished business, it's time to process each and every item. Don't worry, that doesn't mean you have to resolve every single item. By "process," Allen simply means that you have to determine a "next-action": the very next thing you need to do, either to resolve an issue or at least keep it moving toward completion. Many items you'll only need to file-or throw away.

What does a next-action look like? Say you want to clean out your garage, but you can't because a broken refrigerator is taking up the space you need for reorganizing. Your next-action could be "Call Goodwill to fetch the dead fridge." Got a looming product launch and feel out of the loop? Write down "Go into Outlook and set up a strategic planning session." Need a pencil sharpener? The process might start with "Download document that explains company procurement software."

It's basic stuff, really, but Allen adds some hard-and-fast rules:

• No frontsies. Address things one at a time, beginning with the top item in your pile and working your way down. Don't move on to the next item until you have determined what next-action is required. Some items may require hard thought; take the time to do it now. If you leave it until later, it won't be any easier, and meanwhile, it will continue to occupy valuable mental space.
• Two-minute actions. If a next-action can be completed in less than two minutes, Allen says do it right way, the first time you have the item in front of you. Not only do you get all the rewards of rapid turnaround ("Mail proposal letter" could give you a one-week jump on the competition; "Call FTD" nets a happy spouse), but, Allen argues, you've also freed up your mind for whatever's next.
• Delegate and defer. For any item longer that two minutes, you can either delegate it (shout over your cubicle, shoot an email to your admin), or simply defer it to what Allen calls a "trusted system"-the combination of calendar, file folders, and action-item lists that form the backbone of GTD. To find out what that might look like, keep reading.

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

Beware the Junk Drawer

As you gather items into a pile, Allen warns to watch out for the purge-and-organize bug. If you get overly focused on, say, an overstuffed closet, you may not get through the entire collection process, which is vital. What to do? Write "clean out closet" on a piece of paper, put it in your collection pile, and move on.

Feed Your "Trusted System"

Goal: Put your action steps into categories where you can review and complete them easily.

Roll up your sleeves, ladies and gentlemen, because now we're getting to the meat of Allen's program. It's time, in Allen lingo, to "organize"-put all those next-actions into a system that enables you to get them all done.

His idea is that you must go beyond laundry lists of actions. In the short run, such lists quiet nervous minds, but for most, he says, they invariably contain a handful of items that never get crossed off. They may be pleasures that you never get around to-like "take guitar lessons" or "play bridge more"-or little things such as "get pants mended." Often it's the big things-"get new job," "help solve world hunger"-that remain unresolved. Allen says that the answer in each case is to determine your next-action-"ask Tom the name of his tailor," "update resume," "send donation check"-then enter it into your personal-organization system.

Needless to say, Allen has some ideas about how to organize your organizational system. Here are the key concepts:

• Design your own trusted system. Develop the combination of calendar and written action lists that will work best for you. Lists can go into a loose-leaf binder, your Treo, scrap paper, the back of your hand-whatever. Calendars can range from Outlook to a hand-ruled spiral notebook.
• Make contextual lists. Organize actions into separate lists defined by the circumstance required to complete them. For example, you can categorize tasks based on whether you do them on the phone, online, at your office desk, at home, or while running errands in your car. The idea is that you'll move more quickly through a single kind of action than if you keep switching back and forth between mental modes, technologies, and/or physical locations.
• Record projects. Allen defines a "project" as anything that requires more than one step, and he strongly suggests that you keep a separate file for each, whether they be small things like "get new couch" or big things like "department reorganization." He also has very explicit instructions about how to set up a system for those files. He prefers a strict alphabetical filing system (rather than grouping by category), and he distrusts hanging folders.
• Keep a "someday/maybe" list. Record and regularly review projects that you hope to accomplish someday, even if there is no urgency-or time-for them right now. It's fine to leave them right where they are, but creating the list and defining the item as currently undoable, Allen says, frees up mental energy that can be used more productively elsewhere.
• Keep a "waiting for" list. What deliverables are you expecting, whether from your boss, spouse, or direct reports? Allen recommends tracking these in a separate list. Some practitioners further organize their pending file by person and/or organization, so that they can go over everything in a single interaction.

Other Resources

Online Tools

GTD acolytes have designed a host of software tools intended to help you build your trusted system, such as GTDGmail, a Firefox extension for Gmail. Jeff Sandquist's GTD Tools page is a one-stop resource that offers a selection of freeware for various GTD calendar systems, both for Macs and PCs.

Repeat Weekly

GOAL: Set aside time each week to review your action lists, so that no items go uncompleted.

Life is a moving target. New data, new demands, and new opportunities keep showing up. You've just organized all of them, sure, but the system begins to age as soon as you go through a morning's worth of email. Hence, the "weekly review"-the linchpin of GTD and also, by all accounts, the place where adherents are most likely to get sloppy.

Essentially, the weekly review is an abbreviated version of all the preceding steps. You gather all your stray documents, notes to yourself, desktop clutter, and detritus of the week, then submit each item to your "process" and "organize" routine. Once you've done this, Allen includes a checklist of steps, best completed in order:

• Review previous week's calendar for outstanding items.
• Review and update upcoming week's calendar, so you know about time-sensitive items on the horizon.
• Conduct a "mind-sweep," i.e. write down all those ideas kicking around your head, whether or not they're for the upcoming week.
• Review project files one by one and determine next-actions for each.
• Review contextual lists and mark off completed actions.
• Review "waiting for" lists and follow up on over-due items.
• Look at your "someday/maybe" list-any dreams deferred that you now have the bandwidth to handle? Anything that has become time-sensitive or urgent?
• "Be creative and courageous" is Allen's last step, a tickler to think inventively of new possibilities.

Voice of Experience

"I've learned from personal experience that a few hours early Friday afternoon is one of the best times for a weekly review. You can capture any remaining open loops while events are still fresh, make necessary contacts while people are still at work, and then head into the weekend with a clear head, ready to relax and recreate."

- Peter Gallant, President and CEO, Pathogen Detection Systems, Inc.

Get Things Done

GOAL: As small action items move off your lists, contemplate larger projects and life goals.

According to Allen, deciding what to do-be it on a daily, hourly, or even minute-by-minute basis-requires trust in some invisible, whether you want to call it your heart, your spirit, your gut, your intuition, or the seat of your pants. Allen provides distinct models for deciding where to focus your energies as you stare at your calendar and action lists:

• Action in the moment: Consider your context (are you at work, in your car, lying on your couch at home?), time available, energy available, and priorities.
• Daily work: Allen says we engage in three kinds of activities-pre-defined activities (things already in your calendar or on your lists); work as it shows up (phone calls, emails, people turning up at your office door); and defining your work (planning, scheduling, making lists, setting priorities, brainstorming). It's key that none of these overwhelms the other two. The key pitfall is letting seemingly urgent new items distract you from planning, as well as from equally important stuff that is already in your system.
• Reviewing your work: Allen says there are six levels at which you can view your work, ranging from "the runway" (current actions) through "10,000 feet" (long-term projects), right up to "50,000 feet" (life). But rather than telling you to start at the top and cascade your way down (like other personal-management systems), Allen advocates a bottom-up approach. That is, as you take care of urgencies and clear out your mind of clutter and worry, you actually make room for effectively considering higher-level goals.

The Big Idea

Making GTD Work

Allen says you must address all your commitments, personal and professional, for GTD to really work; the smallest cracks in your implementation create larger problems. For example, when a to-do list is not exhaustive, Allen says you lose trust in it, and you're actually less likely to accomplish every item than if the list were complete but much longer. "Ninety-nine percent is a bitch;100 percent is a breeze," says one long-term practitioner who helps implement GTD at his Fortune 500 company.

Declutter My Desk

It's the month of July and I need to put away all the clutter that adds up to my daily worries of whether I might have misplaced my pieces of papers.

Hunee, you got a lot of clutter in your table. When do you plan to clean it up?

Wit

I consider it another love letter. It simply says my boss doesn't want me to have clutter on my desk because it'll affect my work. She doesn't want clutter also because I sit in the reception area wherein this is the table that everyone would see first when they get inside the office.

Decluttering is one way to clean for yourself. It is one way to easily find things whenever you are in a hurry. Declutter every month or at least once a month.

Marketing: Doing SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is a method of assessing a business, its resources, and its environment. In my case, MARKETING DEPARTMENT. In doing so, it is a good way to better understand a business and its markets, and can also show potential marketing propaganda in the future.
The essence of the SWOT analysis is to discover what you do well; how you could improve; whether you are making the most of the opportunities around you; and whether there are any changes in your market—such as technological developments, mergers of businesses, or unreliability of suppliers—that may require corresponding changes in your business.

FOR A START:
Making it happen

Take time to consider that what you believe are the strengths of your business. These can be seen in terms of your staff, products, customer loyalty, processes, or location. Evaluate what your business does well; it could be your marketing expertise, your environmentally-friendly packaging, or your excellent customer service. It’s important to try to evaluate your strengths in terms of how they compare to those of your competitors.
For example, if you and your competitors provide the same prompt delivery time, then this cannot be listed as a strength. However, if your delivery staff is extremely polite and helpful, and your competitor’s staff has very few customer-friendly attributes, then you should consider listing your delivery staff’s attitude as a strength. It is very important to be totally honest and realistic. Try to include some personal strengths and characteristics of your staff as individuals, and the management team as individuals. Whatever you do, you must be totally honest and realistic: there’s no point creating a useless work of fiction!

Try to take an objective look at every aspect of your business. Ask yourself whether your products and services could be improved. Think about how reliable your customer service is, or whether your supplier always delivers exactly what you want, when you want it. Try to identify any area of expertise that is lacking in the business. as you can then take steps to improve that aspect. For example, you might realize that you need some more sales staff, or financial help and guidance. Don’t forget to think about your business’s location and whether it really does suit your purpose. Is there enough parking, or enough opportunities to attract passing trade? Your main objective during this exercise is to be as honest as you can in listing weaknesses. Don’t just make a list of mistakes that have been made, such as an occasion when a customer was not called back promptly. Try to see the broader picture instead and learn from what happened. It may be that your systems or processes could be improved so that customers are contacted at the right time, so work on boosting your systems and making that change happen rather than looking about for someone to blame. It’s a good idea to get an outside viewpoint on what your weaknesses are as your own perceptions may not always marry up to reality. You may strongly believe that your years of experience in a sector reflect your business’s thorough grounding and knowledge of all of your customers’ needs. Your customers, on the other hand, may perceive this wealth of experience as an old-fashioned approach that shows an unwillingness to change and workwith new ideas. Be prepared to hear things you may not like, but which, ultimately, may be estremely helpful.

The next step is to analyze your opportunities, and this can be tackled in several ways. External opportunities can include the misfortune of competitors who are not performing well, providing you with the opportunity to do better. There may be technological developments that you could benefit from, such as broadband arriving in your area, or a new process enhancing your products. There may be some legislative changes affecting your customers, offering you an opportunity to provide advice, support, or added services. Changes in market trends and consumer buying habits may provide the development of a niche market, of which you could take advantage before your competitors, if you are quick enough to take action.

Another good idea is to consider your weaknesses more carefully, and work out ways of addressing the problems, turning them around in order to create an opportunity. For example, the pressing issue of a supplier who continually lets you down could be turned into an opportunity by sourcing another supplier who is more reliable and who may even offer you a better deal. If a member of staff leaves, you have an opportunity to reevaluate duties more efficiently or to recruit a new member of staff who brings additional experience and skills with them.

Analyzing the threats to your business requires some guesswork, and this is where your analysis can be overly subjective. Some threats are tangible, such as a new competitor moving into your area, but others may be only intuitive guesses that result in nothing. Having said that, it’s much better to be vigilant because if potential threat does become a real one, you’ll be able to react much quicker: you’ll have considered your options already and hopefully also put some contingency planning into place. Think about the worst things that could realistically happen, such as losing your customers to your major competitor, or the development of a new product far superior toyour own. Listing your threats in your SWOT analysis will provide ways for you to plan to deal with the threats, if they ever actually start to affect your business.

After completing your SWOT analysis, it’s vital that you learn from the information you have gathered. You should now plan to build on your strengths, using them to their full potential, and also plan to reduce your weaknesses, either by minimizing the risk they represent, or making changes to overcome them. Now that you understand where your opportunities lie, make the most of them and aim to capitalize on every opportunity in front of you. Try to turn threats into opportunities. Try to be proactive, and put plans into place to counter any threats as they arise. To help you in planning ahead, you could combine some of the areas you have highlighted in the boxes; for example, if you see an external opportunity of a new market growing, you will be able to check whether your internal strengths will be able to make the most of the opportunity. For example, do you have enough trained staff in place, and can your phone system cope with extra customer orders? If you have a weakness that undermines an opportunity, it provides a good insight as to how you might develop your internal strengths and weaknesses to maximize your opportunities and minimize your threats.

The basic SWOT process is to fill in the four boxes, but the real benefit is to take an overview of everything in each box, in relation to all the other boxes. This comparative analysis will then provide an evaluation that links external and internal forces to help your business prosper.

Every week, in marketing, I got to do a SWOT. It is a never ending thing for me since I have to base some decisions of whether or not push through with this or make a new one. At the start, it'll be so much pain but in the end it'll be like the usual routine office work.

This article is taken from www.blogs.bnet.com